Ten
''Ten'' is the first book in The Winner Years series. March Winnie Perry is finally in the land of double digits! At the table with her family, Sandra tells her that her birthday will just give people new opportunities to call her weird. This made Winnie feel a little bad. But her mom assured her that she was just unique. On Saturday was Winnie's birthday party. The theme was Halloween. Everyone in the family pitched it to make the house look haunted. Amanda, Winnie's best friend, arrived first. Chantelle arrived next. She was also best friends with Amanda and Winnie, but she arrived later into the friendship. Maxine arrived next. Then Louise and Karen arrived, who were best friends. Winnie thinks that Karen is kind of Louise's pet. The last girl to come was Dinah Devine. Winnie thought that Dinah was a bit weird, and didn't really fit in anywhere. Everyone put their presents in the TV room, and they also got tattoos done by Winnie's dad. Then everyone went to the basement where the spookiness was. Led by Winnie and Amanda, everyone ventured into the basement. There, Sandra (Winnie's older sister), was hiding behind a furnace. Sandra jumped out and scared everyone. But Winnie's mom thought that it was time to go back upstairs. After the party was over, Winnie went to ask Sandra if her party had been good or bad. Sandra told her that it was both, and that Winnie is a weird child. But Winnie explained that she is now a tween, and not a child. Sandra also told Winnie not to rush growing up, and that growing up isn't all its cracked up to be. But Winnie doesn't agree so she writes a note of encouragement for herself and hides it in the molding of her room. April Mr. Wilson, Amanda's dad, kills a mouse. Winnie and Amanda feel bad, so they name him Henrey, and bury him in Amanda's backyard. Then Amanda's mom takes Winnie and Amanda to the mall. They eat chicken salad and mango sorbet and then they go window shopping. Mrs. Wilson allows Winnie and Amanda to buy something out of one of the stores. Winnie buys a bracelet with a peace sign. After a fun day at the mall, Mrs. Wilson takes the girls home. Then Winnie's mom comes to pick Winnie up. Winnie accidentally wishes that Mrs. Wilson was her mom. That night Winnie tells her mom that she never ment to say that. Winnie's mom tells her that it's okay. In the morning Sandra keeps making fun of Winnie because of what she said, but Winnie's mom talks to Winnie, and tells her that she is the perfect mom for Winnie, and Mrs. Wilson is the perfect mom for Amanda. May Winnie thought that her Aunt Lucy was the greatest aunt ever. This was because she was pretty, young, and spoiled her, Sandra, and Ty. Also her aunt invited her and Sandra to stay in New York for a weekend. Amanda asked Winnie if she could get her an I <3 New York shirt. Chantelle asked Winnie if she could get her an autograph form Al Roker from the Today show. Winnie's mom told her that she wouldn't mind having an autograph from Al Rocker either, but she also told Winnie not to be starstruck. When they landed in New York they went to find their Aunt Lucy. They took a taxi to the apartment to drop off their suitcases and went exploring and ate pizza. The next day they went to Central Park where they saw Al Roker and his daughter, but they didn't approach them. That day and the next they did a lot of fun things like buying sea salt caramels, watching a musical version of Mary Poppins on Broadway, and shopping at the Disney store. But Winnie's favorite event was going to the top of the Empire State Building. On Sunday they went to a hotel called the Plaza. There they say a portrait of a girl named Eloise. The doorman who was showing them the portrait told them that it wasn't the real one because the real one got stolen. When they were about to leave, the doorman asked them if he should give Eloise their regards. Winnie told him to tell her that Winnie, Lucy, and Sandra say hi. June Winnie was very happy because summer vacation was here. Winnie and Amanda alternated between the neighborhood pool and the Garden Hills Pool. One morning, Winnie's mom took Winnie, Sandra, and Ty to the Garden Hills Pool for a picnic. While Winnie was swimming she noticed that Ty was upset because some girl his age was being mean to him. Winnie went to see what was going on and the girl said that guys are not allowed to wear pink. Winnie forgot that last night she gave Ty beauty treatment which involved painting his toenails pink. But Winnie told her that colors are for everyone, and she walked away with Ty. They went to observe the other people of the swimming pool, and Winnie told Ty that people are allowed to do whatever they want. July Winnie was mad at Amanda because they were supposed to go to camp together, but instead Amanda backed out and signed up for cheerleading camp. Winnie's mom told her that she didn't need Amanda to have fun, and that she will make new friends easily. At camp, Winnie couldn't form an opinion about the camp because the only semi-fabulous thing that they did was take off their shoes and go into the river to look for good skipping stones. Winnie also thought that her counclers, Jake and Lily, were nice. But then Winnie starts to think that the camp is cool. They were at the Chattahoochee Nature Center, and there was a lot of nature around. Also they were going to break open owl droppings and see whats inside, which Winnie considered fabulous. But Winnie still didn't have any friends. There were five girls at the camp, and four of them had bunched up together to form a group, and all of them were kind of snobby and didn't like nature. Winnie called them the Polka Dots On day two of the camp, Winnie learned to build a fire. Winnie also considered this fabulous. The counclers split up everyonce into groups of three. Winnies group had a boy named Connor and a Polka Dot. They had a lot of fun building the fire while the Polka Dot just sat there. On Wednesday, the campers hiked out to a place called the Raptor center. It was a hospital for birds of prey that have been wounded. Winnie was good friends with Connor, and they were together the whole time. The polka dots launched into a Rockettes routine, but Winnie didn't say anything. On Thursday, the campers went canoeing in the Chattahooche river. Winnie shared a canoe with Connor. On Friday they all did a community service project which involved cleaning up trash from a park. The Polka Dots complained about this. Then the Dots asked if Winnie liked Connor, Winnie said no. The Dots said that Connor's friend is crush-worthy. They nicknamed him Mars-Bars. They're not sure what his real name is, but it's something like Plars. Winnie left and she and Connor had a really good time picking up litter. August It was Ty's birthday and one mother dropped off both of her sons to the party. The older one, Chad, was very unbehaved. He jumped on furnature and was loud and hyper. Sandra and Winnie left to go to Memorial Park and relax for a bit. Then they left to go get ice cream because the wasps wouldn't leave them alone. Sandra said they were cranky because they were in their final days of living. A few days later Winnie tells Amanda about the wasps since Amanda's backyard had a lot of them. Winnie and Amanda went to go play on the play structure that Amanda's dad built. They got on the swings, and Amanda told Winnie that she was afarid of the changes that fifth grade would bring. Amanda said that her mom told her that things would be different with boys, gossip, and the whole friend thing. But Winnie told her not to worry and that they will get through it together. Then Winnie and Amanda decide to jump off the swings and grade each other. Amanda gave Winnie a 10 out of 10. When Amanda jumped, and struck her landing, she yelped. She called Winnie for help. Winnie knew that a wasp was stuck in her shirt, so she tried to wrestle it off of Amanda. When she finally did the wasp flew away, and Winnie saw that Amanda had been stung at least three times. But Amanda grew self conscious and she ran to her house. She yelled at Winnie to leave. Winnie went home but at dinner time they called each other and said sorry and that they would be best friends forever and nothing would change that. September Winnie was excited because she was going to be in the same class as Amanda and Chantelle. Sandra gave Winnie some advice about fifth grade and how people start worrying about the notebooks you have and how kids don't bring in cupcakes on their birthdays. Sandra was already starting high school as a freshman and Ty was starting preschool. But Winnie didn't let any of that bother her. In the morning was Winnie's first day of school. But Amanda and Chantelle told Winnie that it's time that they had crushes on boys and not only them three, Maxine, Louise, and Karen were in on it too. They said that they should all claim a boy to have a crush on. Chantelle already claimed Tyrone. But Winnie told them that she wasn't in that stage yet but she also didn't want to not fit in, so she faked it. October Winnie went to find Sandra for advice. She told her all about the boy-craziness and about a boy named Alex Plotkin. Sandra told her that boys are nothing but trouble and should all be locked up in a cage untill they were mature. But then Sandra asked Winnie if she had a crush on Alex because she kept asking about him. Winnie tells her that she doesn't and that he has a crush on Amanda, so Sandra assumes that Winnie is jealous. Winnie then thinks that this thoery might be true and she gets upset. But Sandra tells Winnie that since Amanda won't have a crush on Alex, then he can't get between them. Later on Alex called Amanda milady, and gave her a heart made out of fuse beads. He also almost ate a cockaroach for her. At lunch, he walks over to the place where Amanda, Winnie, Chantelle, and Maxine were sitting. He offers anyone cheese crackers. But when Winnie reaches for one, he says "anyone other then Winnie." Amanda tells him that thats mean. Winnie tells Amanda that Alex dosn't scare her, and then Alex lunges foreward and says "BOO." Winnie pretended not to be scared, but then she lunged and growled at Alex, which made everyone scream. This caused Maxine to spill her juice box on her white pants. Then Winnie and Alex kept on telling stories to see who's braver, and Alex won because he claimed to have seen a dead dog on the road. Later that day, Winnie went to her mom to tell her about everything. Winnie's mom asked if they're a little too young to be having crushes. Winnie told her mom thats shes not having crushes, Amanda is, and she asked her mom what to do about Alex. Her mom replied by telling her to ignore him because she cant control Alex's actions. Winnie called Amanda later that day and found out that Amanda wasn't even considering Alex as a crush. Winnie knew that Alex won the "who is braver" contest, but Winnie won Amanda. November Thanksgiving was one of Winnie's favorite holidays. In school, in her year, they were churning butter. Each year did a different thing. Winnie's class was writing acrostics using the word Thanksgiving. Winnie handed in her poem and the class left to go to the World of Coke. The classes watched a movie about coke and went coke flavor tasting. Then the classes went to watch a second movie, but during the middle of it, Winnie found a disembodied toe on her seat. Winnie tried to move it, but it ended up being part of a foot. Winnie drew a face on it. December The two fifth grade classes of Trinity elementary school got together to draw names for Secret Santas. Winnie got Mindy. Mindy was new, and she didn't find Winnie amusing. But for Mindy's gift Winnie brought a plastic container from an odd little store at Peachtree Battle Shopping Center. The container was a pink recangular shape with crisp edges. Winnie used puff paint to paint Mindy's name onto the container and she also painted a buzzing bumblebee with wavy lines to show that it was on the move. Then Winnie filled the container with mini reese's cups. The two classes exchanged their gifts on the last day before Christmas break. Winnie's Secret Santa was Maxine. Maxine gave Winnie a shiny blue cookie tin with reindeers on it, and inside were homemade potato latkes. When Mindy's name was called, she didn't even crack a smile when she saw her present, all she said was say thanks flatly. When the next kid was being called, Winnie saw Mindy move the container farther away from her. At lunch Winnie asked Mindy if she liked the present. Mindy told her that she's "allergic to peanuts, which means I'm allergic to peanut butter, too. The container is tacky. Your handwriting is, like, so babyish, and I hate the color pink." She also told Winnie that the bumblebee looks like a turd. Amanda and Chantelle comforted Winnie. January One day in January, Winnie went into her basement to fetch a cardboard box. It came with the lamp that Winnie's dad gave to Winnie's mom for Christmas. Winnie played with it for a little untill she dragged it to the kitchen. Winnie wanted to find a way to stand in it, with her feet on the bottom. But the box was as tall as her, so this would be hard. But Winnie climbed on the kitchen counter, and tried to lower herself into the box, but when she let go of the counter and dropped in the box, her arms slid up and were pinned between her ears and the cardboard sides. The box fell onto the floor and Winnie knocked out. Her mom didn't taker her to the E.R. Instead she let Winnie watch movies in her room. Eventually Sandra and Ty joined in. Then Winnie's mom and dad joined to have a family movie night. February In February Mindy started a mean secret club. Every morning she and her friend Katie picked a special friend for the day. Then they all made fun of others. Their main target was Winnie. Winnie tried to be brave, but it was hard. One day Chantelle was picked, and she said yes. Winnie was shocked. At lunch, Chantelle called Winnie Lint, which was the nickname that Mindy and Katie made up for Winnie. Then Mindy called Winnie a flea on a dogs back that no one can get rid off. Winnie called Mindy the dog. Then when Winnie didn't take it back, Mindy slapped Winnie. Amanda tried to slap Mindy back, but Mindy caught Amanda's wrist and twisted it. Winnie lunged at Mindy in an attempt to get her to let go of Amanda. But when teachers started to come, Winnie got up. Chantelle went to Winnie's side and told Katie and Mindy that now it was three against two. No one got in trouble because they said that they were all pretending. March In six days it would be Winnie's 11th birthday! She was planning to have a slumber party. She invited Amanda, Chantelle, Louise, Karen, and out of force-Dinah. She was also very happy because Mindy moved to Florida a week ago. But Winnie told her mom everything that happened with Mindy, and Winnie's mom told her that she has never dissapointed her, but she should have told an adult. Then Winnie's mom called Winnie's teacher, Mrs. Meyers to tell her what was going on with the friend picking. Later on in the day Winnie's dad and his friend Elmo installed a bookcase in her room, and they rearranged everything. But then Winnie asked for her dad to lift her up so see could check for her hiding spot in the molding, but it was gone!. Elmo told her that the wall ate her letter and her candy bar. Winnie wasn't completely sad because at least her letter will always be a part of the house. Book Cover Gallery Ten.jpg|English Language Edition Ten2.png|Alternate English Lanugage Edition See Also *Character List Category:Books